JazzCat here. Hi everybody!

[jazzcat]

Hi everybody!
Yeah I know, it's been a looooong time of me being out of the loop. More than likely will still be that way, for the most part. It's a long story, part of which is below.

Anyway, for the last couple of years I have done very little with MIDI for a few reasons. I've been working in live situations, and my main computer died over a year ago, just after I left my husband and moved. A friend sort of fixed the computer but I misplaced all of my driver disks so haven't been able to set up my MIDI interface.

Also, when the computer died, so did the program I did my sequencing with. Now it is no longer supported, so even if I install it, I wouldn't be able to register the darned thing. Eventually I'll have to learn another program but it's hard to teach an old Cat new tricks. LOL! Someday I'll get my stuff together and pretty much be using what I was using before, at least hardware wise.

I have paired up with a keyboard player who sequences. His software is even older than mine! He's using Opcode's Vision on an old Windows 95 system! He uses some older sound modules and sequences all tracks while he's playing live. He's not using General MIDI sounds at all so needless to say, our stuff isn't quite compatible.

Just discovered that John created this forum by visiting the MIDI Hangout. I couldn't find any of his tutorials there and was just about to email when I discovered the message regarding this forum. Now if I can find the tutorial on bits, bytes and hex I'm gonna go read and refresh my aging memory!

JazzCat

[JohnG]

Hi Jazzcat,

Great to hear from you and a warm welcome to the forum.

So sorry to hear about your problems both personal and technical. Perhaps we can wean you over to XGworks! If you have any Yamaha gear it's certainly the one to use to program all the XG stuff into it. But as I recall you have an SD2.

If you pop over to the XGworks user forum in Yahoo groups and ask nicely, you might find a free gift coming your way.

There's a freebie new piece of software called Sekaiju available as open source MIDI which isn't too bad either. These are both simpler than Cubase or Sonar to get into IMHO.

I'll send you a PM shortly.

All the very best to you Jazzcat, I'm so pleased to see you around again.
As always,
JohnG.

[simmo123]

A big Hi to you JazzCat,i was certainly pleased when i saw your post,what a nice surprise,i am sure that you will have many more good wishes from members & old friends from the Hangout site & also the previous site from where you were a major player along with the Guru himself John G & whom i personally have been helped out by both of you on many occasions in the early years,i am getting there step by step, all the very best seasonal greetings to you from The Simmo's down-under

[jazzcat]

Nice to see both of you! Glad to be back!

[weegeo]

How great to see all the `old`[lol lol]heads coming back together how brilliant is it to have Cat back with us again Seasons wishes to everyone


weegeo

[modbod]

Hi Jazzcat

Good to see you back in touch again. Best wishes for 2012.

Rgds, Michael

[jazzcat]

Just a quick note. I have my sequencing program back! Some wonderful human being has 'fixed' it so it can be used again. I am quite sure that the big-wigs at Turtle Beach (formerly Voyetra) could care less about this 'cracked' piece of software due to the very limited number of people who use Voyetra sequencing software any more. Why do I believe this?

I had quite a long phone conversation with the Chief Executive Officer and President at Turtle Beach, Carmine Bonanno. (Never dreamed he would return my call, but he did!) I called him because I had not been able to get anywhere with the support staff, and neither have hundreds of other people. I explained that many people still use their software and are angry that they can no longer register it, if they have a computer crash and rebuild their system. I asked him if he would consider those former customers and consider turning over the Record Producer sequencing program code over to open source, rather than kill it completely. No go. I even asked if he would consider selling the code. Another no go. His main reason being that the software is antiquated and useless and that no one in their right mind should still want it. He insists that we all accept new technology and programs that are being supported and updated. Very bluntly he said that no one should use old computers, old operating systems or old programs. His second reason is that the code would have to be 'found' again and compiled and that is too time consuming for no gain on their part. None of the programmers that created and updated it are with Turtle Beach any more which would make that task even more daunting for them. (Yep, more people who lost their jobs when T.B. got out of the software end of their business.) Third reason, they don't want anyone else benefiting from their research and development dollars that went into the software in the first place.

They refuse to support it any more and all support people have been told to recommend Sonar. He himself recommends Sonar and also uses it.

So, if anyone has found themselves in the same boat as me, meaning you've lost the ability to use your bought and paid for version of RPD, I can help. The fix though, is only for XP.
Cat >^..^<

(note to SysEx John: If this post is inappropriate please feel free to delete or modify it's contents.)

[JohnG]

Hi Cat,

Thanks for posting.

It is most appropriate, Cat.
As far as I'm concerned anything that is MIDI or music related is fine on this forum. There may well be others who benefit from your research.

In response to your post all I can add is that CEO is an imbecile! From his point of view, I suppose, the program cost a fair amount to support, and the sales didn't justify the expenditure. Too much competition I imagine. The simple fact of life is that companies can't support loss making products, however much we, as consumers, would like them to. It is a pity though that they don't think of their users.

It's like CakeWalk removing the ability to run CAL routines in Sonar. This is supposed to be an advance. It's actually dumbing down. It's why I keep an older laptop with Windoze 2000 on it, so I can still run CWPA9.
It is why, I believe, so many are now moving to open source programs like Reaper. It is also why XGworks Pro got created, because of Yamaha's insufferable attitude.

Cakewalk seems to have shot themselves in the foot to some extent with their new Sonar X1. So many of what I'd call power users, are complaining of bugs or missing old features, or things taking many keystrokes when on was all that was needed in the past. No doubt they are getting lots of new users, which is all they care about.

This has been the problem with so many specialist hardware and software companies in the recent past. E-MU (now owned by Creative) used to make one of the very few high end PCMCIA audio cards for laptops (the 1616m cardbus) but pulled it. I thank goodness that I managed to get one a year or two back via eBay in it's original box with all the contents.

I still run XP as it does all I need and probably will do for the forseeable future.

Anyway, good to have your post, and thanks for the generous offer.
All the best,
John.